Migration As a Response to Climate Change: Adaptation or Failure to Adapt?

Although environmental changes have always been a driver for human mobility, climate change has accelerated (internal and international) migration and displacement and has complicated the interrelationship between the environment and migration. Climate change is seriously impacting the individuals’ livelihoods and well-being, the local economies, and the social lives of communities. Whether in the form of environmental hazards or gradual environmental degradation, it has variable (in)direct effects on the affected areas and individuals, resulting in different responses and outcomes. Yet, migration theories and interdisciplinary studies have documented the multi-casual character of migration. Several compounding factors (economic, social, political, cultural, and demographic) along with environmental challenges influence not only the decision to migrate and the volume, direction, and duration of migration flows but also individuals’ experiences in origin and destination. Thus, scholars have recently questioned binary schemes (e.g. forced-voluntary, labor-environmental migration), and attribute migration (or immobility) to the complex interplay of multiple macro, meso, and micro-level factors. Moreover, the likelihood of migration is influenced by the affected areas’ vulnerability in the absence of mitigating measures, as well as the individuals’ capability and access to (material and social) resources to move.

As insecurity and risks intensify, migration can represent a viable solution, an adaptation to the impacts of climate change that allows individuals to seek safety, and better opportunities elsewhere. However, migration is neither an option for all, -as it is the most vulnerable who are mostly affected and less likely to move- nor is it a problem-free experience. Migrants are likely to face multiple challenges in destination areas and they often have to replace one type of precarity for another. The success of migration as adaptation is intimately linked to the outcomes in the destination area. Inequalities, structural conditions (and occasionally) new environmental hazards may reinforce their vulnerability and impact their well-being.